*deeeeeeeeeeeeep breath* Ahhhhhhhhh. I am bordering on GIDDY! 3 years after I started back to school full time (including Summers!) and I am finally finished. I know it's been 12+ years since I first started my college career, but I am pretty darn proud of myself for doing this. I started in January, 2008. At this point I had a full time job, 2 children, and had been married for a little less than a year to my husband. At the end of my first semester, I found out I was pregnant. We had planned to have another child, but AFTER I was finished with school. We were living in a 2 bedroom trailer at the time because it was on his family's "farm" and we weren't having to pay any rent. So... the plan was for me to finish school, us to buy a house, and then add to our family. (My first two children were from a previous marriage.) So, our little surprise didn't really fit in to the plan. Especially since I had waited to start back to school full time until my children were a little older. Now I was going to have a newborn! I was not going to quit, though! So, I pushed through, and thank God my last class was online that Fall because I was put on bed rest. My sweet baby girl had to be induced 3 weeks early due to my extremely high blood pressure (pretty standard for my pregnancies). This was a blessing in disguise because my classes started back just a few days after her original due date. So, with a 3 week old newborn at home I went to my first evening class, leaving her with Daddy and my mother-in-law. I told my husband that there was no possible way I could work full time, go to school full time, and have a newborn. We decided either school or work had to go and we also decided that me finishing school was more important. So, after a lot of tears (I happened to love my job and had worked pretty hard to get to the position I was in there) I made the decision to leave my job and after a few months we decided we had outgrown our little trailer. (We had actually about outgrown it before the baby came!!) So, God intervened again and allowed us to buy my former boss's house, which was right next door to my brother-in-law. The price was right and the location was perfect. Also, little did I know, the set up of the house was perfect for the home daycare I was opening! We just couldn't afford a house without 2 incomes, so my solution to staying at home with the baby so I could still go to school was to work at home. (See my other blog: Chronicles of a Happy, Blessed Mess) This proved to me a much larger undertaking than I imagined, but very rewarding. While I did get to stay at home with my kids FINALLY (it was huge dream of mine!), I sure didn't have any extra time for homework! With between 4 and 7 kids at the house there is not time for homework and I put in a good 10-12 hour day most days. I actually could have graduated in May of this year had I really loaded myself down in the spring and taken one more class in the Summer. Instead, I decided to give myself a break, take the Summer off and finish out in the Fall. This last semester has proven to be the largest workload and most stressful of all!! I had told myself that December was my goal for graduation, weight loss and some life changes I needed to make. However, I caved under all the stress and none of those other things were accomplished. And, actually, under all the stress, I completely forgot to apply for graduation in time! So.... I just think God granted me an extension on my goals. I will graduate officially in May.
So. Now that I can breathe deeply again for what seems like the first time in almost 3 years, I feel like I'll have plenty of energy to spend on my poor house, my poor family, and my poor body until May!! I am thinking of a 19 year old girl. I allude to her a lot in my blogs because she is so much a part of me! She had to quit school, move away from all her friends, live in a college town with old classmates saying bad things about her behind her back (which got back to her, as those things usually do!) while they went on with their lives in college, doing what normal 19-20 year olds do. She thought in the back of her mind that she might not ever finish school. (You see, she was pretty beat down and had lost a lot of self esteem) She started growing up and she spent all her time on her babies and became a single mom and there was never time for her and there was never time for school. But, now, this 30 year old is looking back at her and smiling. And, I'd just like to say, "Hey, girl! Look at us. We made it, you and me. I always knew we could. Let's see what next!"
;-) *tear* (but, it's a happy one!)
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